


Post-Apocalyptic Location

by RektRose



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Animal Death, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, I don't know how far I'm going with the violence, I try to utilize canon but I will disregard things too, Post-Apocalypse, Sentient Animatronics (Five Nights at Freddy's), Slow Burn, there will be abuse mentions, they'll get there, well some of them, which is why it's unrated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:29:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28645275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RektRose/pseuds/RektRose
Summary: Clover is a survivor in a world ravaged by animatronics. She thought she'd spend the rest of her days alone until a seemingly routine scavenge in a empty suburb gets interrupted by a pink robot bear.
Relationships: Funtime Freddy (Five Nights at Freddy's)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	1. A Perfect Family House

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry my mobile readers, I just now realized that this wasn't formatted correctly for mobile.  
> It should be much easier to read now!!!

Thin metal scrapes across the dried up grass and another heap of torn shreds fall around it. I toss the bag to the side and sigh.

“Yet another useless pile of junk.” I said to no one in particular. I pull off my backpack and push my toilet paper and half eaten bag of cereal that’s staler than my finger nails. My canteen’s spout lid is popped off and and I throw my head back, trying not to get the water caught in the wrong pipe.

Eventually the liquid is drained and I shake it a few times above my head, and a few drops touch my tongue. I turned my head and saw the picturesque house behind me, one of many but the first I plan on searching, the grass has long since been watered, nothing but dandelions and clovers trying to get the sunlight peeping through the trees.

I zip my backpack and pull it over my shoulders, the chipped mahogany paint of the door welcomed me as I slam into it with my shoulder.

Dumbass.

Of course it was locked. I stepped back and pulled the multi-tool I kept in my lower pocket out and flipped the knife. A few strips of wood, and dislodged paint later I was in.

Creaks echoed throughout the home and sunlight reflected off a large photo hung in the living room. I pass the plaid puffy couch cushions and see it’s a family of five that lived here.

A thin smiling copper haired man has his hands placed on a young boy, his dress shirt creasing strongly by the pressure. The young boy looked to be around five years, give or take. His blue-grey eyes and corny grin caused me to smile in return. To the left of the man was a teenager with black hair and brown eyes. He refused to smile. A red haired woman seemed to have held her clone. A curly haired toddler who’s green eyes looked off-camera. Thoughts of what being that girl, what she must have had and what her life was like filled my head.

My stomach growls and I head down the hall. More pictures of the family were hung on the wall to my right and to my left was a switch below a vase like lamp. I flick the switch up and, the light came on. I go back to shut the door and fiddled with the ends of my backpack strap.

Why did this house have electricity? No place had electricity unless it was invested by the metal beasts. I’m frozen in place, sliding my fingers over and over again on the straps.

I stop and listen.

The buzz of a light bulb, the opening of a fridge. _The opening of a fridge?_ On one hand, potential food, on another a bot. No, that wouldn’t make sense, they don’t eat. I could see a small glimmer of light around the corner of the house and I decided to take a chance.

“Hello?” I slowly approached the wall, hugging it as I grabbed my multi-tool, flipping the knife out.“I’m not here to hurt you. I’m human.”

Darkness returned to the corner and I dropped the tool flinching. The light behind me flickered off and I held my breath.

“Shit” I got to my knees and started combing the carpet for the knife, trying to be careful not to cut myself. Then I felt a swish of air pass my hands and I involuntarily clutched my chest.

Another flicker and then a hiss. A large pair of glowing eyes met mine. I could feel tears about to pour and kept my eyes open, too proud, even when I was going to die anyways.

I looked down and my multi tool shimmered, in a large metal hand, teasing me.

I looked up and could make out a black nose on a pink snout. It’s bright eyes were now at an angle.

“Do you know how to use this?” a raspy male voice with static undertones blares from below. Why did it speak?

“Do you?”

“No fair, I asked first.” it pulled away, and rose above me. A creak and slide of tin door and my hope was gone.

“Ok. Let’s say I do.” I pushed myself up the wall. “Let’s say I do know how to use that-”

“Is that a yes?! I think that’s a yes.” The eyes got incredibly close before a hand clasped around my forearm and I was dragged around the corner to a kitchen.

A light flashed on above and I had to shut my eyes to readjust before opening them slowly. A giant metal bear pulled me to a counter, with a blue legless rabbit adorned with a red bow tie.

The rabbit looked to be a puppet, except made of metal and had a layer of thin rust covering it in splotches.

It finally let me go and I opened the fridge. The cool breeze felt like an angel blessing my skin with comfort. That comfort was shortly torn into a million pieces, a puke inducing smell entered my nose, like a rotting carcass.

I shoved the door back and coughed into my elbow. The bear had his hands on his hips and hard thumping of metal started.

“Sorry, I was hungry.”

“My friend is in danger, and you’re looking for a snack?” he gestures across the rabbit behind him.

“That’s a puppet.”

“That’s Bon-Bon. Now,” it’s stomach slides open and he pulls out my multi tool and hands it to me. “You’re going to fix her.”

“You’ve given me back my weapon.” I point the knife.

“What are you going to do stab me?” It cackles.

I wish I had brought my crowbar. I kept the knife out and poked the rabbit. It barely moved and I pushed my knife into the opening, I assumed for the bot’s hand and a crimson cloud fell to the ground. Didn’t take an engineer to tell that the Bon-Bon, as it called the thing, wasn’t going to be fixed. At least not with the multi tool.

“You can fix her, right? I can’t let the others know I broke her!” The bear clung his hand to his head, and a stubbed one slid off the other side. “I can’t ask them because then they’ll know that I left without them and I didn’t mean to get caught in the rain.” The bot seemed to huff a bit as thought it was trying to catch it’s breath.

“It’s going to be ok.” I lied to him as I pressed my hand to his shoulder. Him? What the hell am I thinking, it’s an animatronic and I’m the one trying to calm it, him, down. Why am I doing this? I didn’t want to die if I made him angry, I tell myself pushing other thoughts aside.

“We...just need some….uh”

“Some what!?” he threw his hand at me, grasping the air.

“Uh, WD-40.” An excuse. I thumbed behind me. “I got some in my car, I can go grab it and I’ll-”

Pain shot through my hand.

“Let’s go then!” he giggled as I was again pulled around and through the door.

“Ok! Ok!” I struggled to keep up with him. “But you have to let me show you the way! You don’t know do you?”

“Oh you’re right” the pain in my arm subsided but he still loosely held my arm. “Follow the leader~!”

“Yeah. Follow the leader.” I walked and he followed behind never letting go. I pushed the barely held together gate of the picket fence and took a left turn. I could see my truck a quarter of a mile away. The summer sun caused it to appear blurry and distorted as we made our way to it, passing several identical houses and a corner store made of brick.

The windows were all broken, wires could be seen hanging inside above abandoned aisles. Nothing inside but empty cardboard, cans and broken useless items.

“My name’s Freddy.”

“What.”

“Freddy, what’s yours?”

I looked down and back at him.

“You have a name?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“I guess. I’m Clover.”

I continue gently pulling him down the street with me, skipping over glass while he crushes it. Dandelions brush by and dust is kicked up. We approach the faded out red of my truck. It’s comically large in comparison to my small stature. Takes a little too much gas but nobody charges for it anymore, so it’s not a big deal. I got to the drivers side and pulled hoping he’d give way.

“You can’t go in here.”

“Please don’t leave me.” he said softly through static.

He doesn’t have it, it should have been clear to me before. The eyes, the ability to talk, the fact he didn’t kidnap me and take me to one of their factories, filled with others of his kind, working for an unknown power that had destroyed the world I used to know.

The time of mom’s laughing over iced tea on a patio while I read my comics and spill melting syrup on the pages. The bells sounding as I rushed out the van and watching the clock hoping for pizza in the cafeteria. The stupid cartoons online I had watched way too often and had them melted into my brain.

My screaming for my mother not to leave me.

And now I was alone with the smell of sweat, spam and dated comic strips I could only barely make out the punchlines to.

“I won’t.” he let me go and I clicked the door open. I scolded myself silently, wishing I wasn’t such a bleeding heart. The leather cracked underneath me as I leaned into the back and pushed around the boxes before diving a hand in.

“See? Here it is.” He grabbed my arm again and pulled me out towards the house.

Bon-Bon laid before me on the counter, I had my can of WD-40 and a turquoise cloth I had grabbed from a drawer.

“Hurry up!” he demanded and pushed my back forward, which made me drop the can. I scramble to pick it up and start spraying inside the rabbit, I wiped gently and kept getting covered in dust. I cleaned my hands on my shirt and jacket, not thinking. I reached the cloth deeper into the puppet, hoping for an end to this OSHA violation.

Sand-like rust dripped down my hand and into my shirt. I jerked my hand out and started coughing and shaking my arm.

“God fucking damn.” I huffed throwing down the cloth. No more games. I pointed to Bon-Bon. “I can’t fix that. I don’t think anyone can.”

The bear collapsed to the ground and the thud echoed out. He let his arms hang to the side and stared ahead at nothing in particular.

“Um, she’s not coming back.” I waited for him to start charging at me, to tear me apart, or to take me to where no one comes back. He didn’t. He sat there alone, and so I followed down.

“Do you want to bury her?” I looked up at the dust still inside the rabbit and crossed my arms. I wish I had felt numb to the bot’s troubles but I couldn’t bring myself to. My eyes shut and I let out a long held breath.

“We get scrapped.” he pushed himself up and grabbed the rabbit with his left hand. His back was to me, avoiding me. Why wasn’t he killing me?

“You don’t have to. We can bury her.”

I’m going to regret this.

* * *

Dried dirt was piled on top of each other until Freddy was satisfied with the result. I started to stomp the dirt flat but his eyebrows lowered and I stopped. My only shovel was thrown in the back of the truck, now parked in front of the faded picket fence.

The nearly flat oval was free from grass and weeds. I backed off to the side of the bear feeling as though I was an accomplice to a crime. What that crime was, who knows. Freddy’s stub barely met his elbow as he rested his face on his hand.

I had only been to one funeral before the world went to shit, my Tia Florence’s when I was five. I didn’t know who she was at the time but just being around people who did had caused me to cry. I could feel it again creeping up on me. I forced it away. I had no logical reason to feel that way then and I don’t now.

Static started up and I could hear a small child weeping quietly. I glanced at him and it cut suddenly to silence once more.

“I had a cat die once.” I didn’t look away. “He was fluffy, orange and white. I loved him. His name was Johnny five.”

“Johnny five?” he asked, finally giving me eye contact.

“Yeah, he was the fifth cat I had. And the last. I left him outside and he got ripped apart.”

“Did you bury him too?”

“Yeah. We buried all five of them. And mom let me put flowers on his grave. Then I said goodbye.”

“Is that what I’m supposed to do now?” he looked around and walked to a tangled bush like weed.

The thistles hit the bare ground.

“Bye, Bon-Bon.”


	2. The Promise

“Where are you going?” I asked as I followed him down the hallway where we had first met. Freddy moved faster than his body should have allowed him, compared to the others I had seen.

Their bodies were either falling apart plush, cracked plastic and styrofoam, or corroded metal and rust. The ones closer to the factories were in similar condition to Freddy’s but not quite as pristine as he was. Or most of him, his hand-less stub still had dark orange and brown stains on it.

“You’re following me?” He looked behind and stopped. Giving me a chance to catch up to him.

“I said I wouldn’t leave you” I did say that. Now it’s an excuse to find out where he came from and to see if this house had running water along with electricity.

He was still an animatronic so there was still a risk but not as much risk as one of the mindless ones.

I may have earned his trust. Even if I couldn’t fix Bon-Bon, I made sure that she was put in a proper place. Not many people had that luxury these days. In a way he owed me, but I wasn’t going to say that outright.

I knew next to nothing about him and didn’t want to anger him.

“But we didn’t pinky promise or anything.”

“Do you have a pinky?”

“Of course! I need them for tea parties.” He does a gesture with his left hand of sipping tea with his pinky up and tipping back.

“Alright, pinky swear. I’m not leaving you.”

He grabs my pinky with his own but with the strength of starting a thumb fight. He stares at me. Do I need to-

“Pinky promise! No crossies.” He wiggled his hand-less stub at me. Not fair that he was physically unable to but good on my part.

“Pinky promise. No crossies.” I repeat without his excitement. I was trying to take this seriously but he didn’t seem to.

“Cross your heart?”

“Cross my heart?” Oh god. My heart pounds. I know this rhyme.

“Hope to die?”

“Hope to die.” Are we done? I tried to pull back my pinky to no avail.

“Stick a needle in your eye.” Freddy gave my pinky a tight squeeze now. He’s serious now, his voice slightly deeper.

“Stick a needle in _your_ eye?” He had to keep the promise too.

“No, your eye. A needle couldn’t even scratch mine!” He winked at me as his voice changed back to his normal cheerful pitch.

“Ok, if not a needle. How about a nail?”

“Hmmm. Sure.” he’s still squeezing.

“Say it and I’ll say mine.” Command him, don’t beg.

“Stick a nail in my eye!” he replies gleefully getting into my face. A taunt.

“Stick a needle in my….eye.” I keep eye contact.

He immediately let go of my pinky and turns away. I put my fingers in my mouth for a second and wipe it on my shirt.

He could have been more gentle. I shake my hand a bit trying to ease the pain.

Weren’t these bots originally rich kid’s glorified clowns? I never got to see one in person until they decided to come ransack my home. The part of town that could never afford the creeps in the first place.

All the kids loved them regardless. It was hard to escape them, on television, on their official website with flash games and most importantly at the big box stores.

Where Fazbear Entertainment made sure every character had their own plush, building block set, blankets, t-shirts and anything else a child would want. Anything a child would throw a fit over and beg mommy to buy.

My little brother was never like that. He only had a plush that was won from a claw machine by our grandfather. He was extremely lucky to find it was the pig with a plastic banjo and different colored eyes. His favorite. I was more into super heroes and monsters like Godzilla than I was talking animals.

Never had to have my heart broken like his was.

“You didn’t answer me earlier.” I said brushing the thoughts aside. I followed him past the kitchen and to a small door a foot off the ground.

The door opened and I could see the water heater that wasn’t in great condition. The water heater was at least a foot taller than I was and looked to go further down than I could see.

Freddy pushed his hand in there and rumbled around, going to each corner while leaning against the wall. I heard the sound of an automatic door. One that I’d only see at big box stores or a fancy gas station when I was a kid.

I looked down to my left and saw a set of stairs leading down into darkness. LEDs slowly flickered on around it.

Before I could take a step, Freddy pulled himself from behind the heater and gave my shoulder a playful push.

“Ladies first, right? Bon-Bon always insisted on that. So I put her in front of me and pretended I was following her down.”

The lights kept flickering a barely visible lavender as we headed down. Whoever had owned this place had a bunker.

What else could be down these stairs? How long had they been down there? How loaded were they to not only have a working bunker after more than decade, but some malware free animatronic?

It wasn’t unheard of to see a person in a wheelchair being carted around by a robotic rabbit or chicken. Fazbear Entertainment discovered that making their mascots usable as living assistants was profitable and more appealing than anything else in the market. And they could get government funding from it.

You either got a CPR dummy, an abstract shaped humanoid, or you got a trademarked character.

Old Miss Scarlet downstairs had one of the cheaper ones covered by her insurance, a purple hippo who would have long winded conversations with her as she watched the world from her window. I hope she wasn’t still around.

Of course it would make sense to have your living assistant go out and check every once in a while to see the state of the world.

I got to the bottom of the stairwell and saw an elevator that didn’t look stable. I stopped and wished there were more steps.

Freddy got too close to me and pressed his body against mine to reach the button next to the door. My feet started shaking and I backed into him. He patted my head, trying to comfort me in his own odd way. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was smiling at me.

At least he knew not to hug me. I moved forward, trying not to let him get any closer than needed.

The metal coffin creaked as we stepped inside and turned around to face the door.

I breathe in my nose. There’s going to be humans down here. I huff out my mouth. They will be glad to see me. Breathe in again. The bear won’t hurt me.

“Be quiet when we get there. They’re all in standby mode.”

Standby mode? It was when the doors shut on their own and I looked down at the discolored end of Freddy’s arm that I realized that there was no way any human would have allowed the rust to build up like that.

“They’re going to be so surprised. I love surprises!”

I hope they like surprises.


	3. Underground Deal

Our steps echoed down the suffocating thin hall. There was barely enough room for the two of us to stand side by side in it. Yet the animatronic standing next to me didn’t seem bothered by how close we were. I hated being close to humans, much less a bot. I kept scratching my shoulder like if I did that enough times, it’d give me more room.

“So, who are we going to surprise?”

Freddy turned to me and pressed a finger to his mouth. He kept walking down the grey hall silently. Right, he had told me to be quiet. I go back to scratching my shoulder again and try to look around at anything to distract myself. We were already halfway down and the only thing to be seen were a couple of ripped posters. The first one at the beginning of the hall, I could see said ‘CELEBRATE’ at the top. It was torn off just touching the brow of whoever wore the orange pigtails left behind. We were shortly approaching the second one. It held the bottom half of someone’s legs posing above the word ‘DANCE’.

In front of us was a huge stainless steel door. Or I assumed it was a door, seeing as it was the only thing at the end of this hallway. Freddy stepped ahead, pulled out a purple plastic card from his stomach and shook it in front of the door.

“How is that supposed to-”

The door hissed and I saw large amounts of steam come out as it slid slowly down into the floor. The steam began to fade and I saw an imposing figure with hands on it’s hips, much taller than I or Freddy was.

“You guys are awake!”

“It’s been fifteen years. They should have all been gone by now.”

Before me was a jumbo clown-like animatronic girl wearing the orange pigtails I had seen earlier. She towered over me but was half a foot taller than Freddy. She was adorned in a red crop top, tutu and odd pointed shoes.

“Does she not like surprises?” I asked Freddy, trying to ignore the giant with a voice that did not match her appearance. She pointed her large finger at my eye. An eye she could easily pop with minimal effort.

“Surprise, meet my new friend!” Freddy pulled the clown’s hand.

“Friend?” She pulled her hand away from his.

“Circus Baby meet Clover. Clover meet Circus Baby.” He grabbed her hand again and then grabbed mine, forcing us to shake.

“You’re human.” Circus Baby gazed directly into my eyes, pushing Freddy’s hand away, as she grasped mine willingly now.

“Yep. As far as I’m aware.” I tried to shake her hand but I had to wait for her to start.

“Follow me to Funtime Auditorium. Clover.”

Circus Baby escorted us to a golden stage at the end of a cafeteria-like room. Sitting at a nearby table was a blue and silver animatronic woman. She didn’t open her eyes but still turned to face us. Below her were several dolls in tutus all sitting upon the checkered floor. On the stage was a single animatronic of a canine variety peering down at me before flipping down to meet us.

“This is Clover. Freddy’s...new friend.” Circus Baby stated while walking to another table, picking up a large baby doll the size of a toddler. “She’s going to help us.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You are Freddy’s friend. Aren’t you?” Circus Baby rubbed the head of the baby doll. “Friends help friends. Don’t they?”

I felt my throat dry up and felt eyes focused on me. There was no backing out of this.

“Yeah. They do.” I struggled to keep my words steady.

“And we’re Freddy’s friends, so you’ll help us. Right?” She gestured to the surrounding animatronics.

I shook my head in agreement and let my eyes wander. The ballerina looking woman and canine animatronic stared at me. The canine one was pulling on their muzzle. While the ballerina one merely tilted her head. The tutu-ed dolls were standing up and walking near me. All of them assessing their future prey. All except Freddy who was rubbing his stubbed arm, distracted by the orange substance on it. Trying to get rid of it, in a futile effort. His eyes widened as he noticed me staring at him and stopped.

“This bidybab. Won’t turn on. I think his battery is...” Circus Baby popped open the back and pulled out a thick plastic battery. It was supposed to be square but it was inflated a bit.

“That battery is dead.” I examined it as she placed it into my hand. It was huge and heavy like a dumbbell but a bit lighter. There was a serial and model number on the back. I had no idea where to get one of these except-

“Go to the junkyard near here. Our creator dumped so many things there. Things like us.”

The junkyard. I’d only been there once before to get a part for my truck. I had to nurse my wounds for days afterward.

She wanted me to go risk my hide for a battery, for one of her bidybabs as she called them.

I thought about it for a moment, trying to tune out the stares of the animatronics around me.

It was never going to be easy for me.

Did I really think there would be humans alive outside the settlement? That they’d accept me with open arms and my life would suddenly become so much easier than it had been for the last seven years. Alone and an outcast. Ignored by the civil. Having to watch as groups of people cleaned stores and houses. If one caught my eye, they’d scowl. I was just like him, they’d whisper in hushed tones. Attacked by the savage. Crashing my head into plywood and spitting in my face. An easy target. I would run and hide in obvious places. Stupid as they were violent. Life was never more than that now.

Now I had nothing but these unaffected bots. They had something I needed, a safe place, away from all the assholes above. Would it be worth it to just to earn the trust of them and be stuck with them? Yes. I was growing tired of the nomadic life I had been living. Barely scrapping by. By God, I was so hungry. So thirsty.

“Alright. I’ll get the battery. But,” I pointed in the air at her as she had done me. “on one condition.”

Circus Baby’s face plates moved around as she stared at me. The canine one, a fox on closer inspection, stopped rubbing their muzzle and backed away towards the stage. The ballerina waved for the dolls to return to her. Freddy seemed to smile as his eyebrows rose and stepped closer to me.

“I get to stay here, once I bring a working battery back.” I said and tossed my backpack on the floor. I was not risking my life for no reward.

“You...want to stay. Down here?” Circus Baby looked down at my backpack. She intently watched me throw the dead battery into the backpack.

The tall ballerina let go of some of the dolls she was holding. The fox slowly came back to the group. I could hear a stifled chuckle come from Freddy’s speaker and he held his fist to his mouth.

“Yep. That’s the deal.” I pulled my backpack over my shoulders and pushed my hand out to her.

Circus Baby hesitated and gazed into my brown eyes with her green. Hers gazed upward in thought and she pulled on her pigtail.

She locked her eyes with mine. Her fingers enveloped my own, conquering my entire hand.

“Deal.”


End file.
